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[Aymes]

My sample collection is incredibly small compared to my module collection.

I think thats because I've always been a terrible "thief" of samples from other modules.

I've decided to mend my ways in this respect, so; what sort of places do you guys get your samples from, and also, any good sample CD stores around?

[Saga Musix]

a quite remarkable IMO is the TMA Waveworld collection. You can download it via torrent at the TMA Tracker. most of the samples are quite good. You can also get some samples from my website. For drum sounds, try this page. Look at these forums, there are some links to some rather good sites, but i don't know if all are still working.

[mrvegas]

If you're looking to buy some basic, quality 16 bit, 44.1 samples try the Samplefusion CDs.  (www.samplefusion.com) They're pretty inexpensive.  I bought the orchestral one -- it's a mixed bag, but not bad for the price.  The University of Iowa has a free classical sample collection of just about every instrument in the orchestra playing scales.  Again, they're old and in .aif format, but some are very usable with a little modification.  I have also bought the Producer's Vault DVD from Electronisounds -- tons of good stuff there.

The only problem with commercial samples is that I'm not sure if it's OK to post them in a mod where they can be ripped.  Since I'm starting to publicly put up music in mod format now, I find myself more and more using samples that I'm sure are public domain or that I've made myself.

Hope that helps.

[Ceekayed]

http://theremin.music.uiowa.edu/MIS.html

The link for the University of Iowa's sample pages. I've been *thinking* of cleaning up and converting all the samples .iti (and mapping the notes and envelopes), but well, you know I'm a lazy bastard so all I have done are the pianos so far (and they don't even sound that good).. I'll let you people know if I ever get the motivation to go through the rest of the bunch. It's just alot of work.

Then there's Kiarchive, which is worth of downloading (yes, the full archive; it's a mixed bag so you'll need to go through all of them to find the good stuff), and the people at #metalscene on espernet can send you most of the Claymore's old instruments (ripped from various soundfonts; good stuff) if you ask nicely enough.

[mrvegas]

Thanks for putting up the Iowa link -- I can't believe I was so lazy as to not take the five seconds to find it again.  Anyway, I think making multi-sampled instruments from that collection, while possible, would be a massive task.  The samples themselves are not always in tune, they need to be normalized and trimmed properly (and looped), the attacks tend to be different, etc.  By the way, this isn't meant to be overly critical, I think the Iowa people did us all a wonderful service by making these available and I use them frequently.  I'm just not sure they were thinking about people making soundfonts, etc. from them in 1997(?).  I think the reeds are pretty good.

Jojo -- you're right, the Waveworld collection is great, too.  When I use those, I usually use Audacity to find the pitch and tune them, though, just because they aren't always labeled very well.

Does anyone have any idea if it's OK to post a mod with commercial samples?  Obviously you can tell people in the comments, sample titles, etc. not to rip them, but I wouldn't want to get in trouble for spreading copyrighted samples all over the web.

[Saga Musix]

This is always a hard question, of course. But, if you were selling a CD with tunes made with samples from commercial CDs, someone could theoretically rip these, too. And I know some old MODs (and I also made some myself) that contain samples from sample CDs. I mean, Sample CDs arent' there because they look nice if you put them in your cupboard! They exist so you can use them! As long as you don't put half of the collection into one mod, i guess it's ok (for me... ) - And if you don't think so, buy yourself a synthesizer and rip the sampels - those are "public domain" anyways...

[squares]

if you like mellotrons: http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/aphex/113/

[squares]

http://freepats.opensrc.org/

[Eagle]

I get my samples from Public Domain, Copyleft or Creative Commons licensed Sound Fonts, the good old ST-xx sample disks or, heck, I just blast away and make my own samples.

[bLUEbYTE]

Computer Music magazine's included DVD contains many samples monthly. Most of them are 24/96 though but a simple batch conversion will do the work... I haven't tried them yet so cannot comment on their quality, but they should be quite good.